Quotes About Autonomy

So if I design it and then go away, it's still living somewhere and it still exists by itself without me.

It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'

I took my son's name. I didn't take my husband's name.

No One Is Alone by Stephen Sondheim is all about thinking for yourself and being your own person.

I usually don't write songs by people calling me and saying, 'Write a song about this.' Usually I'm just going with what I want to write, so you never know.

I'm a songwriter and producer, so I'm always wanting to make my own stuff, and not use anybody else's.

I took a strong stand to get away from Sony Records.

They thought I was a success as soon as I started paying the bills.

There's no law that says you have to do what your mentor suggests. And the sooner you learn how to say 'no' confidently, the easier it will be to manage these key relationships.

For those men who, sooner or later, are lucky enough to break away from the pack, the most intoxicating moment comes when they cease being bodies in other men's command and find that they control their own time, when they learn their own voice and authority.

Sooner or later we've all got to confront the reality that we have got to come to understand who we are and what we're doing, and the extent to which we are guided or manipulated by forces that are beyond our control.

Even in early adulthood, men can't be told what to wear; they can only be subtly moved by example, encouragement, and a generally sophisticated atmosphere.

I didn't want to be Nelsons's wife. I wanted to be soprano Kristine Opolais.

There is no such thing as liberty. You only change one sort of domination for another. All we can do is to choose our master.

The soul is a very perfect judge of her own motions, if your mind doesn't dictate to her.

Since I was doing all of it myself, I had to decide where I wanted to go with the songs, how to proceed with the chords, if the sound was alright, and all that detail on my own.

I hate a word like 'pets': it sounds so much Like something with no living of its own.

I want some colleague to be free to come help me when I say the time has come. That's what I'm fighting for, me. Now that sounds selfish. And if it helps somebody else, so be it.

I do not live off canned soup.

Private property was the original source of freedom. It still is its main ballpark.

For me, I think that I don't like feeling pressure from outside sources. I'd rather put the pressure on myself and push myself to do it as good as I can.

If somebody actually came to me and said, 'O.K., this is it: write your last 'South Park' episodes,' I'd be like, 'No, no, no.'

As a southern woman, we often define ourselves by who we are with. But I wanted my life to be built differently.

The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.